Giving Corporate Gifts: The Way to Success

To cement excellent business relations there is nothing better than a little gift giving, whether to an important client or a valued employee. But be sure to follow the guidelines or corporate policy of the company which is to benefit from your gift. There are often restrictions placed on the value of the gift. Guidelines can be obtained from the personnel department.

After checking corporate policy, a gift should be selected carefully according to the position, interests and hobbies of the recipient. While the holiday season is the most popular time for the giving of corporate gifts, there are many other occasions which can be made the most of, including the anniversary of an important date for the business, such as its founding, the opening of a new office or the opening of a new office or branch. Retirement, marriage, birth of a new baby, and promotion are just few of the excellent moments when one can show deep appreciation by giving corporate gifts to encourage loyalty and strengthen team ties, that is gift giving should be limited to only a few occasions a year.

As for the company logo, while having this appear on the gift does act as free advertising, it is only appropriate for gifts which will be in use daily, such as key chains, drinking mugs, caps and ballpoints. If you are about to give a personal gift, the company logo should never be used. Appropriate gifts include electrical goods and appliances, travel or alarm clocks, food such as hampers, tickets for shows or travel and that old favorite, desk accessories. Be sure if you are giving internationally that you are abiding by the customs of the country where you are giving. Misbehavior could backfire and create serious negative effect on your image in the corporate world. Corporate gift giving among U.S. sank in the year 2005.S. companies against of pre-tax profits, despite the huge corporate responses to Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami which were so splashed across the media. More than $1bn was given by US companies to relief victims for these disasters. The total contribution given by companies such as Wal-Mart, AIG, and Citigroup rose from $8 to 14%.56bn, but a percentage of pre-tax profits declined to 0.9 per cent from 1.1 per cent the year before. Considering profit growth, the decline was probably unexpected. Two-thirds of the donations from companies were in kind.

The top bids generally want their philanthropy to be aligned with their business strengths. Deloitte, a consultancy firm, prefers to offer its services to charities and to withhold cash instead. Eli Lilly and Merck and Pfizer as well as other pharmaceutical companies prefers to give a larger proportion of medicine and supplies over cash. Annual contributions from 88 leading donors are in the region of $10bn, which is about half of all corporate philanthropy in the US. The median gift is about $32m. On the other hand, 17,000 more companies in America are clearly not pulling their weight.